The things we do... also I'm a big worrywart.

I remember Christmas when I was about 7 years old - maybe 6. It was very cold - snowy, sleeting - terrible outside. My father went out in the middle of the night and put together a FULL SIZE trampoline in our back yard (my Christmas present that year) DURING that awful storm. It took hours. The worst part was - I think he actually had a cold at the time. When I was older (and found out about Santa) somehow it came up that it was my father who did that for me that year. Anyway - it was a good lesson for me then - that has stuck with me all this time - that your children just never know what you really do for them. Until they have children of their own of course - and then they know - because they're (hopefully) doing it for their children. And that's as it should be. I just think of that sometimes because there are all these little detail things that we do for the boys that they will just never know about until they have children and then (I hope) it will occur to them that someone did that for them when they were little. There are some things that are nearly obsessive now: I check on the boys to re-tuck them in to their beds before I go to sleep every night - so they get tucked in to bed at least twice - and usually 3 times or so every single night. Mostly this is because I worry they will be cold because they kick off their covers (they of course rarely get cold - they are very hot-blooded like their father. I on the other hand am always freezing, so its hard for me to grasp that my children are warm when I am not) - or that they have lost their pacifiers or stuffed animals - or that they may be sleeping at a funny angle and may fall off their beds (even though we have a rail of course), or may be wet and haven't woken up because of it yet. I also still occasionally go check on them just to make sure they are breathing - you know - like new mothers do with their newborns? Yeah. Max is 3. If he did stop breathing - he would likely come to get us before anything bad would actually happen because of it. Still - I check. Just in case. I'm a worrier. I worry. There are other things though - like the other day Max refused to eat anything except meat sticks and bananas (which we were out of) so Greg (who had about 15 minutes before he was going to be late getting to his show) dashed to the store to get him some meat sticks and bananas for dinner so that he would have something he enjoyed. Or the numerous nights that we have stayed up till gosh o'clock in the morning so the boys would have cute clothes to wear to a playdate or baby class. (because we have such tight schedules and our laundry arrangement here is such that we both have to be home in order to do laundry because its in another part of the building - and well, we just aren't both at home at the same time during the week until late at night) Some of that is selfish - we want the boys to look cute when we go to playdates, baby class, etc - but some of it is that we want to make sure they "fit in" with the other kids there and here in Chicago most folks are very baby-fashion conscious. I'm sure there are many things that ALL parents do - that just nearly wear you to your core - but for some reason aren't really talked about very much - like caring for them when the kids and BOTH parents are VERY sick. That's fun. That's hardcore parenting right there my friends. A week or two ago Greg and I actually had to make a decision as to which of us was actually LESS sick than the other one - in order to split up work/chores/responsibilities so that everything got done. It was sort of like well, "I'm not as likely to pass out from lightheadedness as you are today - so I'll do "this" - you take care of #1, #2, #3 because those are very low-key things you can do and sit down in between when you need to". That being said, it doesn't happen to often that we're both that sick at the same time. Usually one of us gets sick and then the other one - so it evens out. And sick days from work just about don't even exist anymore - its actually less strenuous to go to work than it is to stay home. LOL!

Other things I worry about:

*that the back of the boys' ears aren't as clean as they should be. I clean their ears a LOT. Plus the insides. They have very clean ears I assure you.

*they have stuffy noses. I check constantly to make sure their noses are clear - its a little compulsive - but they can't blow their noses yet - so I just check. Just in case.

*that they smell nice. I always make sure they smell nice because I have heard so many people talk about how babies should smell nice and I just want to make sure that mine do!

*clean hands. We wash hands ALL the time!! Well not, you know, all the time - but very often!

*that they have all the pieces to their toys. This is a constant thing for us. Greg and I both are always looking for toy parts.

notes:

Max likes to take his trains for plane rides in his big plane. Sometimes his plane becomes a space shuttle and they go to space. He also talks to his trains and apologizes if he drops them. Isn't that thoughtful?

Ash is still loving Eco-babies Wear Green - so we read that every day. He has also taken a liking to some of the other books in that series, Winter Babies Wear Layers and Urban Babies Wear Black (the Black book is Max's favorite of the series).

Both of the boys enjoy singing the Mickey Mouse Clubhouse theme song - and often they break into song in the car together. (you have to be able to interpret of course - but its super cute) Ash is also getting the hang of row, row, row your boat and they both sing parts of Old MacDonald Had a Farm.